Bitcoin Falls 4.3%, Slipping Below $9,000 for First Time in Two Weeks

Published on

Nov 8, 2019

by Coindesk | Published on

Coinage

Bitcoin fell 4.4 percent Friday, slipping below $9,000 for the first time in two weeks.

The price dropped to $8,800 as of 18:57 UTC, according to Trading View.

It's still more than double where bitcoin was at the start of the year, leaving the cryptocurrency as one of the world's best-performing asset classes in 2019.

Bitcoin had rallied more $2,000 in late October after Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that the country would embrace blockchain - the decentralized computing networks underpinning cryptocurrencies - as a "Core" technology, followed by the reveal of hundreds of blockchain projects already in motion.

Friday's decline accelerated after bitcoin broke below its 200-day moving average of $9,186, which had been seen as a price support by some traders using technical analysis.

The price drop appears to have triggered margin calls for some traders, leading to position liquidations and creating additional selling pressure, Kelly said.

One of the macroeconomic narratives for buying bitcoin is that, like gold, it can be used as an inflation hedge, Kelly said.

Some investors may also have become more skeptical that China's public push to use blockchain would translate into new demand for bitcoin, according to Greg Cipolaro, co-founder of Digital Asset Research.

While many traders thought bitcoin, as the original blockchain and biggest digital asset by market value, might benefit from broader adoption of the technology, if China has been at work developing a digital version of its own currency, it could be a win for blockchain technology on the whole but mean little for bitcoin today.